Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, received the NFL Executive of the Year award from The Sporting News on Tuesday.

Rooney, who succeeded his father Dan, owner of the Super champions, as team president in 2002, won the award in balloting by 58 front office executives throughout the league. He received 13 votes, one more than Seattle president of football operations Tim Ruskell. The Steelers, of course, beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

Rooney's father won the award in 1972 and 2001, while Art Rooney, Dan's dad and the founder of the franchises, got it in 1974.

"It's nice to be recognized by your peers," the winner said. "My father hinted the other day it was coming, and told me, `You know, I have two of these."

WWIIOwheelz

03-28-2006, 09:23 PM

Quite the feather in his cap, and it was his own doing. A fitting tribute to his Dad.

Suitanim

03-29-2006, 08:13 AM

Congrats...and certainly well deserved.

clevestinks

03-29-2006, 09:33 AM

props, What a family, we are lucky

tony hipchest

03-31-2006, 10:56 AM

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9343581

"I think our philosophy, our way of approaching the building of a team, is trying to be consistent by using the draft as a foundation," Rooney said, after receiving the award during the AFC coaches-media breakfast at the NFL owners meetings. "I don't think you can build a team through free agency. You can plug a hole here and there, but the foundation has to be to build through the draft and to try to bring in the kind of player, not only talent-wise, but character-wise, that can come in and contribute to the team and be a positive influence in the locker room. Those are the keys for us."

Another key is the Steelers' ability to maintain enough discipline to stay true to their approach despite so many other NFL teams aggressively shopping the free-agent market. Rooney insists it isn't hard, because of the organization's makeup, beginning with coach Bill Cowher and director of football operations Kevin Colbert, who received seven votes for executive of the year.

"The first thing you do is you bring in people like Bill Cowher and Kevin Colbert to understand the philosophy and buy into the philosophy, and there are very few times that we have any disagreements at least on character-type issues," said Rooney, who succeeded his father, Dan, as president of the Steelers in 2002. "Everybody in our organization understands how important that is. You can always have disagreements on talent, but when it comes to character, everybody in the organization understands that and wants to do it the right way."

Steelhorse

03-31-2006, 11:41 AM

It's nice to see good things happen to good people - the world needs more people like the Rooney's

Suitanim

03-31-2006, 05:20 PM

You know, we should throw him a big party, and we could paint the grass at Heinz Field silver, have Coldplay pop up out of a big cake or something and play a few songs while 4,000 cheerleaders dressed in gold lame dance during fireworks and laserlight displays...maybe K-mart could sponsor it, too...

tony hipchest

03-31-2006, 05:27 PM

You know, we should throw him a big party, and we could paint the grass at Heinz Field silver, have Coldplay pop up out of a big cake or something and play a few songs while 4,000 cheerleaders dressed in gold lame dance during fireworks and laserlight displays...maybe K-mart could sponsor it, too.........invite the emperor of china and maybe present him with a sb ring too. :sofunny: as we line the field with 4,000 clay statues once the cheerleaders clear. it would be a great gesture for global expansion.